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Help identifying Fight Club printing/edition?

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In the book section here at the Cult there are pictures. There are tons on ebay or abebooks.com, but most are later printings. You can probably find one for <$40. If you want a REAL first edition, it'll have a number line like 123456789 on the copyright page, which means first printing. If the line was 5678910111213 it'd be a first edition, FIFTH printing. There are paperbacks if you just want to read it.

I dont get why you would pay more just cause it got printed first. Why don't you just but the newer one? Cheaper and has a cool intro by Chuck.

It's called collecting. The only books of an author that will have any long term value are the first edition, first printing. That's why it costs $40 to buy a first edition, 34th printing of Fight Club, but $300-1000+ for a first edition, first printing.

There are a whole lot of reasons why the first edition is the valuable, collectible one. The cover art is usually unique. And there are usually less printed. For example, I collect Stephen King. A first edition, first printing of Carrie goes for $1000+. The cover art on the hardcover US has changed about four times since then. It's just the nature of book collecting. Some people think it is insane. For others it is a thrill, fun to try and find these copies, and value. I've made some money. I bought an anthology of short horror stories for $40, signed by all of the authors, guys like Stephen King, Clive Barker, F. Paul Wilson, etc. It now sells for $3-400.

Most original print runs are less. For example, I think Carrie had maybe 10,000 copies. King's latest was probably in the millions. It makes them more rare. Same with limited editions, and signed limited editions. I bought the Palahniuk limited of Rant. It's a pretty cool book, and I think only a couple hundred were made. That's in the entire world. It's like the difference between buying a print of a painting, and buying the painting.

I dont get why you would pay more just cause it got printed first. Why don't you just but the newer one? Cheaper and has a cool intro by Chuck.

It's called collecting. ...It's like the difference between buying a print of a painting, and buying the painting.

I couldn't agree more Sir, thank you for the astute and well-thought out reply.

I'm also a big King fan, have been for many years.

I own basically every book he's ever published, but sadly no US 1st Editions.

The most valuable book I own is actually a signed 1st edition (UK HB) of Lisey's Story. Mainly it's value comes from the way in which I aquired it; King gave a reading from the book in London last year and sat for a signing session after.

I am about to post a First Edition, First Printing, autographed by Chuck Palahniuk on EBay. There is one on there now with a Buy It Now price of $999.99. The one I own is even more special because of the personal inscription "Self Improvement is Masturbation". Get ready to bid!!

The most I ever paid for an autographed book was a hundred bucks for the hardback From hell with Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's autographs in it. And the only reason I got that was because I wanted the whole series in a hardback format. the signatures were just a bonus.

I dont get why you would pay more just cause it got printed first. Why don't you just but the newer one? Cheaper and has a cool intro by Chuck.

It's called collecting. ...It's like the difference between buying a print of a painting, and buying the painting.

I couldn't agree more Sir, thank you for the astute and well-thought out reply.

I'm also a big King fan, have been for many years.

I own basically every book he's ever published, but sadly no US 1st Editions.

The most valuable book I own is actually a signed 1st edition (UK HB) of Lisey's Story. Mainly it's value comes from the way in which I aquired it; King gave a reading from the book in London last year and sat for a signing session after.

Hell of a day Sir, hell of a day...

Well, I have a collection of King worth about $10,000 if you want anything PM me, I'm selling bits of it off - US 1sts, UK 1sts, 1st shorts in magazines, anthologies, signed/limited, etc.

And what, no LINK to that Fight Club for sale?

The most I've ever paid for anything was about $300, but I've also bought books for $40 and sold them for $300.

i thought they only switched it during the ms for the movie but that the book had it right

im pretty sure i heard that in the dvd commentary for the movie
and didnt dennis just sell an official first edition first printing approx 2 months ago?
does anyone remember the cover price. i'm now too thinking it was $21 even
-kabol

Can someone tell me the details on First editions? I think I have a miraculous Christmas story in the works.

I was at Barnes n' Noble, going through the "P" section. Naturally, I glance through Palahniuk's books. At the start of the line of Fight Clubs, there was this hard cover with a jacket. I thought, 'Hm, that's weird. A new hardcover?' I examine it, and see that it has the recognizable cover art of the first edition. It's a little abused. The jacket's a little crumpled in the corner, there's a tiny tear in it at the bottom. I think 'wouldn't it be cool if this was a first edition? No way.' I look inside. It says "First Edition". I start freaking. I go up to the help desk and ask a bunch of questions about the book that go along the lines of "could it be?" One lady was a Palahniuk fan, and looks it up for me, and is just as baffled as I am as to how it got there. She looks it up on the computer, and it says it was printed in '96, but it doesn't say "First Edition". But it does say it in the book. So now I'm really really wondering what's going on with this thing. I bought it for the $23.95+tax it says on the jacket. Now I need to know what's up.

Here are the details.

The ISBN in the book is 0-393-03976-5
The ISBN on the jacket, however, is 978-0-393-03976-4
There is NO number line in the book, unless a lone "0" on the bottom counts (I wouldn't know).

i thought they only switched it during the ms for the movie but that the book had it right

im pretty sure i heard that in the dvd commentary for the movie
and didnt dennis just sell an official first edition first printing approx 2 months ago?
does anyone remember the cover price. i'm now too thinking it was $21 even
-kabol

I have a 1st/1st and the cover price is $21.
And the ISBN is 0-393-03976-5

I just don't know what the lack of a number line means. It just has a "0". That's the odd thing. And the difference in the ISBNs between the book and the jacket, too. Someone must analyze these discrepancies!

Has anyone noticed the difference in the cloth coloring of the hardcover book? I have a 1st/1st and the cloth color is burgundy. I bought recently a new hardcover book, so I can read it as I do not want to disturb by 1st/1st anymore. The cloth cover is yellow. I wonder if the 2nd print on was changed to yellow. I saw a 4th print on eBay the other day and it was yellow.

I was on eBay today and saw a copy of fight club that has the yellow boards BUT has a full number line. The seller isn't selling it as a first edition and points out that the yellow boards were indicative of later printings, so I am confident as to the accuracy of the listing. It should also be noted that the copyright page looks slightly different then the true 1st's, specifically the publishers addresses.

My question to people knowledgable on the history of this books is, do you think this is a printing mistake by Norton ( maybe this was a prototype that got released), or an actual first printing with different boards (meaning there are two variants of the true 1st/1st)?

Better late than never for a response I guess. The books with the yellow boards are reprints and will have their own printing run, which is why they will also have a full number line. They do this when something is getting popular again and want to cash in on its second run of popularity but have already ended the original print runs. They changed the boards to yellow to distinguish it from the true first editions which are the Burgundy boards. Just in case you are curious, I sold one of my burgundy board, signed first edition, first printings (yes, I have multiples...nice living in the same state as the author) on eBay a few months back for 550, I have yet to see a yellow boarded book sell for more than 150, even signed.

As far as some of the other questions in this thread, the 0 on a copyright page does mean 10th printing, after the 10th printing it goes back to showing a full number line as in 111213141516, the 10th is the only one that is a single number.

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